Pennsylvania Railroad Company. Office of the President.
Biographical notes:
The Office of the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was created on March 31, 1847, with the election of Samuel Vaughan Merrick and formalized under the original by-laws of April 2, 1847. The president was the chief executive officer from the organization of the company until November 1, 1959.
The first two presidents, Merrick and William C. Patterson, generaly favored a more old-fashioned arrangement of the sort that characterized other Philadelphia-based corporations of the 1815-1845 period, with the president serving as a ceremonial figure representing the stockholders and serving as the company's link to the larger community. The tenor of the PRR presidency as a military style commander-in-chief with deep engineering and operating experience was work of their successor, J. Edgar Thomson, but it must be remembered that it was Merrick and Patterson's attempt to assert full authority over Thomson that precipitated the struggle that led to his victory and their departure from the company.
The incumbents of the office of the president have been : Samuel Vaughan Merrick (1847-1849); William Chamberlain Patterson (1849-1852); J. Edgar Thomson (1852-1874); Thomas Alexander Scott (1874-1880); George B. Roberts (1880-1897); Frank Thomson (1897-1899); Alexander Johnston Cassatt (1899-1906), James McCrea (1906-1912); Samuel Rea (1913-1925); William Wallace Atterbury (1925-1935); Martin Withington Clement (1935-1949); Walter Simonds Franklin (1949-1954); James Miller Symes (1954-1959); and Allen Jackson Greenough (1959-1968).
On November 1, 1959, Symes was promoted to the new position of chairman of the board, and President Greenough's position was downgraded to that of a chief administrative officer. Symes was succeeded by Stuart Thomas Saunders of the Norfolk & Western Railway on October 1, 1963. Saunders, who had been chose specifically to orchestrate the Penn Central merger, remained in office until the eve of the Penn Central bankruptcy in June 1970.
From the description of Records, 1910-1965. (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 123466635
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